The closest alternative to Gemini 3.5 Flash is Claude Opus 4.5 — comparable intelligence (43.1 vs 43.3); for a cheaper option, Qwen3.7 Max runs $1.25/M vs $1.50/M; for more speed, GLM 4.7 hits 427 t/s; and the best open-weight substitute is MiniMax M3.
Claude Opus 4.5 is the closest alternative to Gemini 3.5 Flash, with an Intelligence Index of 43.1 (Gemini 3.5 Flash scores 43.3) at $5.00 per million input tokens.
Yes — Qwen3.7 Max costs $1.25 per million input tokens versus $1.50 for Gemini 3.5 Flash, while staying within ~8 points of its Intelligence Index.
MiniMax M3 is the strongest open-weight alternative to Gemini 3.5 Flash — downloadable from Hugging Face and self-hostable, scoring 54.7 on intelligence.